The Stanford Prison Experiment Philip G Zimbardo

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A Summary of “The Stanford Prison Experiment” by Philip G. Zimbardo
The Stanford Prison Experiment was a psychological study conducted by Philip Zimbardo in 1971. The study began by placing ads in the local city and campus newspapers asking for volunteers to participate in a study of prison life. Each participant would receive $15.00 per day for the duration of the study. The study included twenty-one participants, including ten mock prisoners and eleven mock prison guards out of more than seventy-five responses to the ad. The volunteers were selected randomly using a coin flip deciding who would be the prisoners and who would be the guards.

The mock prison was set up in the basement of the University and remodeled to duplicate real life prison cells with metal barred doors, a prison yard, the hole and even bedrooms for the mock warden and mock superintendent. The prisoners wore typical attire of an inmate including smocks and stocking caps. The first day of the study passed without issues, however, two days into the study the mock prisoners began a riot forcing the guards to exude more dominant behaviors to cease the actions of the prisoners and assume their …show more content…
Within the next three days more prisoners were released due to suffering similar conditions including one prisoner who developed a rash all over his body. There was even a divide in ranks among the guards. Guards who were not as forceful or sadistic in their treatments and behavior to the prisoners were viewed by their peers as weaker and insufficient. However, other guards took their role to the extreme. The student’s became so engrossed in their roles they forgot they were simply college students volunteering in a psychological study. The study was to run a full two weeks, but due to the reaction of both prisoners and guards, the study was terminated after only six
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